


Remember to Forget

by Mossy



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Because memory losses are fun, Death, Guns, I have a twisted mind, M/M, Romance, ereri, hit lists, silver bullets
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-11
Updated: 2014-04-13
Packaged: 2018-01-15 07:57:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1297324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mossy/pseuds/Mossy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It isn't easy to be a sociopath murderer and have to take care of a teenage boy whose life purpose is to be eye candy.</p><p>And Levi has known that having no connections was always part of the job. Get attached to someone, well, that will make it all the harder to kill them. And there will be no exceptions.</p><p>Not even for teenage eye-candies.</p><p>ON HIATUS because parents are shitty and have issues with my writing</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Past

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, this is my first Ereri fanfic, so....please don't judge?  
> Well, no, actually, judge. Or rather, critique. Just no major flames, please~  
> If you enjoy, remember to leave a kudo and bookmark!
> 
> Also, if you want a schedule to know when I update, I plan to update one a week on either Tuesdays or Thursdays, unless stated otherwise. <3
> 
> And one more thing before you read this - if you're reading this fanfic simply for the fact that you hope to see endless supplies of porn and sex, well, too bad. This fanfic is going to have some good ol' fluff, don't worry, but in this fanfic I will be more concentrated on character development and plot lines then just a shit ton of chapters with nothing but sex and porn in it.

  Levi wasn't going to screw up this time. Or _seem_ to screw up, if that was the wish of Uale and his bratty circle of friends. Ever since the fifteen year old had been admitted as a trainee to the Wings of Freedom, Uale was out for him. As the ‘runt’ of the trainee group, many had said it had been a miracle that Levi had gotten in. No one expected he was going to pass his trainee rank either. Especially Uale.

  The day Levi had arrived at the synod, the first thing Uale did when he looked at him was laugh. “We’re accepting _him?_ ” he said in between fits of laughter. “That midget? He’s like, what, four feet tops?” The obnoxious tall blonde had then leaned back onto the wall and wiped away some of the tears that had formed in his eyes, his expression one of pure contempt and joy. “I can’t wait to see what he’ll become. Maybe he’ll be the cleaning boy?”

  What Levi hated most about what the man had said was that the position of ‘cleaning boy’ hadn’t exactly sounded horrible to him; he would have been more than happy to clean up the headquarters in the state it was in.

  Ever since that first encounter, Uale had been out to get him. Anything that Levi did, Uale would do something to make it look like Levi had screwed up. When he had stolen that beautiful antique vase, hundreds upon hundreds of years old, Uale had reached out to get it. Levi, his pride taking the best of him, had contemptuously complied too Uale’s silent request and had handed the urn over. Then Uale had the nerve to drop it mere seconds after he received it, mouthing a little ‘Oopsie!’ before walking off.

  Now Levi had his sights set higher.

  The Jaeger family was a rich and famous one; but additionally, one that was secluded from the rest of the ‘famous’ clans, or so to speak. The people in their family weren’t exactly social, but they weren’t heartless; Levi had heard rumors of them adopting a young girl not too long ago. Of course, he wasn’t one to rest all his trust in rumors, but every story had a grain of truth in it.

  But that wasn’t of any importance. What Levi wanted to do was steal from the Jaeger house; and do it well.

  Not wanting Uale to stick his ass where it wasn’t wanted, Levi had kept this expedition of his own secret. He would present the loots to the commander directly. And he would win favor in the eyes of the commander.

  The outlines of Levi’s plan ran through his mind as he sat on one of the trees that overlooked one of the many windows in the mansion that the Jaeger family called their home, precariously balancing on one of the thin limbs with a practiced ease. Resting his hand on his hip, he felt the familiar shape of his pistol. Sure, he wasn’t one of those creepy people who named their guns and then tried to have sex with them, but he was sentimentally attached to this particular gun.

  He had killed his first person with it.

  Not shot - just killed.

  It had been before he had joined the Wings of Freedom; far before then. He had been in second grade, so of course, he had been so stupidly gullible back then. Levi didn’t remember all the details personally. He knew now that his mom had been selling her body to other men when he wasn’t around, but why…he still didn’t comprehend. He did remember coming home from school one day, coming up the stairs to greet his mother…and then seeing that horrible creature who claimed to be a man sitting over his mom, doing things that no underage child should see.

  After that, everything had been a blur. Levi recalled that he had taken the first thing in his reach, which, ironically, had been the man’s own gun, and kept on hitting the man’s head with it, until, finally, he had stopped moving.

  Shortly afterwards, his mom had thrown him out of the house, and he had been taken in by Hanji’s family, thus granting him the honor of knowing the Wings of Freedom, as Hanji’s own parents were both members.

  Levi held the gun in front of his face, admiring it with a sort of cold admiration as it its silver sheen reflected dully in the moonlight. “Hopefully,” he whispered softly, “I won’t have to use you tonight. It is a bit of a shame, though, isn’t it?” Chuckling softly, he re-fastened the silver object back into his holster.

  Levi checked his watch- he had been observing the Jaegers’ and their daily habits for a week in order to decide the perfect time for him to enter the household. Surprisingly, it had been a fairly early time compared to what was the stereotypical time for thievery, only eight o’ clock PM, and he had a fairly wide time frame of six hours to do his snooping before he had to leave.

  “I’ll be out of there within the hour.” He silently murmured to himself as his eyes scanned the watch that was fastened securely to his wrist. It was only six ‘til eight, but Levi wasn’t planning on going early. He was going to enter at exactly eight and no sooner or later.

  Two more minutes passed, and Levi heard a noise in the courtyard below. Glancing down while carefully staying hidden by the green boughs that offered him a welcome shade, he saw the source of the noise; the patriarch of the Jaeger household was leaving the building.

  Levi felt the rare sensation of excitement course through his body as he saw the man walk towards his car, a sleek black Ferrari. ‘ _Well, that’s a man who isn’t afraid to throw his money around.’_ He thought wryly as the engine sputtered to life before the car sped away. But Levi still didn’t move.

  Three more minutes passed, and then the patriarch’s spouse walked out of the house, her hair held up in a neat brown bun that perched elegantly on her head. As she walked beneath Levi’s tree, she paused and Levi’s eyes hardened. He felt his hand slowly reaching for his gun.

  But the woman had paused only to sneeze, and after a few moments that were spent to wipe her nose and then to replace an elegant white handkerchief that had been pulled out, she was on her way. Levi’s dark grey orbs followed her until she turned the corner and was out of sight.

  And then, grimly smiling, Levi looked at his watch. One hand was on the twelve, while the other was on the eight.

  He began setting his simple plan in motion. Leaping off the branch, Levi landed lightly on the marble roof, grimacing a bit when his boot slid on the smoothly polished surface. “When the hell do they have the time to make this roof so shiny?” he muttered, picking himself up. “I mean, I understand the importance of cleaning, but I do believe I’ve just discovered the amazing possibility of over cleaning.”

  Levi continued to walk across the roof, his black leather jacket with the Wings of Freedom emblazoned on the back flapping noisily in the wind, causing him to curse even more. His eyes narrowing in an attempt to see better, he pinpointed his target; a large skylight that was going to serve as his entrance. Walking over to the skylight, he pulled out a small oilcan. “Never hurts to be prepared,” he said wryly as he began pouring the liquid onto the hinges of the skylight. After re-pocketing the small object, he experimentally pulled at the handle, opening the skylight a couple inches. No noise emitted from the hinges.

  Satisfied that his entrance wasn’t going to make enough noise to give him away, Levi fully opened the skylight and jumped softly onto the soft, red carpet below. “Perfect,” he said, looking up the way he came, before glancing back down at his watch. The whole procedure hadn’t even taken five minutes.

  “Good,” he muttered. “Now I just need to find the master bedroom, and-“

  “’Scuse me, sir?”

  Levi’s heart skipped a beat. Very, very slowly, he looked up to see a young boy, probably no older than four or five, sleepily rubbing his eyes as he gripped tightly to a small teddy bear. His brown hair was a mess, suggesting that he had just woken up if the whole rubbing eyes act hadn’t already given it away.

  Levi’s mind was racing. The number one rule of the Wings of Freedom was to do everything in secret. To be seen, to be noticed at all, was unthinkable. Levi had planned out every detail of this plan, considered every single possibility, except being spotted by the baby of the household. ‘ _I suppose it’s best to comply with him for now.’_ He thought stiffly as the little boy in front of him opened his mouth in a yawn. ‘ _Otherwise, he might raise the alarm, and then I’m screwed.’_

“What is it?” Levi said carefully, crouching down so he was at eye level with the little boy. The child, for the first time, opened his own eyes, revealing two bright green emerald eyes that sparkled even in the dim light.

  “Wait. You didn’t call me master.” The boy said suddenly.

  Levi blinked. “What.”

  “You’re not my mother or my father or my unknown brother or Mikasa.” The boy explained carefully. “I don’t think you’re Uncle Hannes either. So you have to call me master.”

  Levi let out a snort of laughter, earning him an angry look from the child. “Hey! You’re not supposed to laugh at me!”

  Levi smirked a little at the boy. “Well, you certainly enjoy living in the lap of luxury.” He noted. “Forgive me. I am….new here, so I don’t exactly understand the rules.”

  The boy’s eyes instantly softened. “Ooooh. That explains a lot.” He said with a silly grin plastered on his face. “My name is Eren. What’s yours?”

  Levi carefully took the small boy’s hand. “I’m….Rivialle.” He said, creating a pseud on the spot. “Please to meet you, Eren. Master.” He added hastily.

  Eren’s expression suddenly grew curious. “’Scuse me, Rivee.” He said innocently, “But….why did you fall from the sky?”

  Levi looked upwards and cursed inwardly. The boy, no wait, Eren, had seen him enter. “Uh…I was cleaning the roof.” He quickly said, recalling how clean the roof had been.

  Eren smiled. “Oh. Okay. Can I have a glass of water? I’m thirsty.” He said, sucking on the arm of his teddy bear.

  Levi scowled inwardly. “Fine.” He muttered, standing up. “Just….don‘t come with me.”

  Eren’s face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Yay!” he squealed, running into a nearby room that Levi assumed was the boy’s bedroom. Grasping the chance to flee, Levi quickly ran away, deeper into the twists and turns of the Jaeger household.

~~~~~~~~

  Levi grinned as he carefully picked up the fruit of his searches – a priceless diamond necklace. The necklace was supposedly a gift from some royal to another, and then to another, etcetera, etcetera. The usual crap. But what mattered was than it was going to be worth a lot of money.

  Pocketing the chains of jewels into his pocket, Levi began making his way back to the skylight, playfully fingering his treasure as he walked. His footsteps resonated dully around the empty halls as he walked towards his exit and former entrance, a rare grin plastered on his face. Glancing at his watch, he read the time- it was only eight thirty two. He would be in an out in less than an hour. “As expected.” He murmured softly, turning a corner.

  And coming face to face with a terrified butler, a glass of water on a small tray that he was holding.

  Cursing as he saw the butler opening his mouth to raise the alarm, Levi quickly brought up his pistol and fired. The butler fell to the floor soundlessly, but, unfortunately, Levi was not able to catch the glass of water, which fell to the ground with a great splash. A ‘shit’ flying from his mouth, Levi began to run away from the scene, which had already begun to attract several sleepy servants.

  ‘ _Damn it!’_ Levi thought angrily. ‘ _How could I have been so careless! I should have heard the butler long before. And it was all going so smoothly until this point.’_ Feeling a hand grasping his soldier, Levi shook the pursuer off, and, without even looking behind him, shot his silver pistol. A cry cut of short was his reward. Grinning nastily, Levi picked up the pace, every once in the while firing backwards when he sensed that one of his pursuers were getting too close.

  Levi narrowed his eyes, trying to plot out the path of the chase that he planned to take it in his mind’s eye. If his calculations were correct, and he was 100% sure they were, he wasn’t too far from the skylight that he had entered through; he had only to pass three more rooms on his right side, turn left, pass two rooms on his left side, go through the fifth door on his right, and then take another left.

  Following the procedure seamlessly, Levi ran into the hallway where the skylight was contained-

  And bowled into little Eren, who had been waddling around the corner at the exact same moment.

  Levi angrily sat up, rubbing his head as he quickly fired down the hallway, killing the only pursuer that had gotten even close to him at the moment. The others had lagged behind a little, probably out of breath, and Levi had a little time to climb up the skylight and run away before anyone saw where he was going.

  Feeling a tug on his cravat, he angrily turned around to see Eren with tears in his vast green eyes.

  “W-why did you do that?” He sobbed quietly, burying his tiny head in Levi’s jacket, getting mucus over the black leather, causing Levi to curse.

  “Get off me!” he muttered, shaking his arm a little as he cocked the pistol at the little boy’s head and pulled the trigger. But nothing happened. Peering at the small silver object, he realized that he had run out of ammunition.

   “Damn it.” He muttered, shaking his arm some more in an attempt to dislodge the boy from his arm. But, like a leech, Eren desperately clung on, his sobs muffled by the rough fabric of the jacket.

  “Why did you have to kill hiiiiim?” Eren howled, his speech a little slurred as tears ran down his face. “He was a nice man. Not like you. You’re a bad man.” Eren hit Levi with one of his tiny fists, howling even louder.

  “Look, kid, I don’t have time for this.” Levi said with strained patience. “I have to go.”

  But Eren pouted up at him defiantly. “No! I’m not letting go.” And to prove his point, he wrapped his chubby arms even tighter around Levi’s limb.

  Levi sighed. “Screw this.” He said, shoving his hand in his pocket before removing a small packet of ammo. Ripping open the packet with his teeth, he began filling his gun with new ammunition.

  “What are you doing?” Eren asked curiously, his curious eyes still filled with tears.

  “I’m refilling my gun with ammunition.” Levi replied, closing the gun’s ammo storage compartment. He cocked the gun experimentally, and, to his satisfaction, heard a small ‘click’. Sighing, Levi pointed the instrument of death at Eren.

  “Oi, brat,” he said slowly, “Let go, or I’m going to-“

  Suddenly, Levi saw a movement in the corner of his eye. Looking up, he saw several more servants charging down the hallway in which he had come. Scowling, he lifted up the pistol and fired it four times. Reflexively, Eren let out a little squeal and covered his ears, his eyes shut tight as he tried to block out the noise and the horrific sight.

  Taking the chance while it was still in his grasp, Levi roughly kicked Eren away before dashing up to the skylight, which, fortunately, was still open. Pulling himself up with a practiced ease, he slammed the skylight behind him in order to slow down his pursuers.

  But as he looked down, he saw a small, pale face staring back up at him with vast golden-green eyes filled with tears that silently streamed down his face. Reaching upwards, as if to grab Levi, the boy mouthed something that Levi was unable to decipher.

  Scowling in reply, Levi leapt away from the skylight, his fingers grasping the diamond necklace that he had stolen.

  But his thoughts filled with money and honor couldn’t block out the heart-wrenching cry that even the closed skylight couldn’t muffle.

~~~~~~~~

  Eren sighed. He knew that he shouldn’t have gotten pissed at dad. He knew that he shouldn’t have gotten into a fight with him. Because, like it or not, it was his dad who had a driver’s license and could drive the limousine that took him to and from school. And, like it or not, he had to deal with going on a _public_ bus, of all things, with _commoners!_

  Well, except for Armin, who just so happened to be the biggest genius in all of Eren’s fourth grade class. But all he did was stick his nose into a book and wasn’t really too social to start with, so Eren could never have much fun talking with him unless he, god forbid, became a fan of quantum physics. Or mechanics. Armin insisted that there was some sort of difference, despite the fact that Eren had gone onto Wikipedia to show him that there was no difference, and would annoy Eren to hell with it the first chance he got.

  Eren sighed again, earning him a scowl from Armin, who was sitting beside him. “Shush!” he said, putting his finger to his lips in an example. “I’m trying to read _‘The Twin Towers’,_ and all _you’ve_ been doing for the past ten minutes it sighing as if you failed the midterms!”

  The brunette rolled his eyes. “Seriously Armin, this is, what, the fifth time you’ve read it this year?” he said, teasingly ruffling the boy’s long blonde hair as he casually ignored the last comment. “Fourth graders like us aren’t even supposed to read any of the Lord of the Ring trilogy until we get to, like, seventh grade or something.”

  Armin raised an eyebrow. “Correction.” He said, a small smile playing on his shy features. “Fourth graders like _you_ aren’t supposed to read it.”

  Eren threw his hands into the air. “Oh forgive me, oh great and all-knowing Armin!” he said in a teasing tone. “I spoke out of turn!”

  Armin smiled a little before turning back to the book in his hands, reading intensely as he completely forgot about his conversation with Eren only moments before as he delved into the world of elves, hobbits, dwarves, and the occasional Gollum.

  Another sigh escaped Eren’s lips despite Armin’s scolding as he looked out the window, before turning his attention to his pocket as a dull buzzing resonated from it. Stuffing his hand into his pocket, he pulled out the sleek black iPhone, whose of which screen read that Eren had received a text.

  Hastily unlocking the device, Eren’s eyes quickly scanned the text that he had received from his sister, Mikasa.

  _Where the hell r u?_

  Eren rolled his eyes and typed a reply.

  _Dad made me go in a public bus._

  It was only a few seconds before a reply was sent from the other end.

  _…damn._

  Fingers flew across the virtual keyboard.

  _ya but if u don’t have anything else to say just stop_

Eren paused, before quickly adding-

  _plz_

Eren began pocketing the phone before, once again, the annoying device began to vibrate again. Letting out an annoyed growl that attracted several glares from nearby students who were chatting noisily around him, he unlocked the device, his bushy eyebrows narrowing a bit as he read the new text that had magically been transported onto his screen through the mysteries of technology.

  _Come to my room after school k?_

Eren pinched the area in between his eyebrows, slightly annoyed. His room and Mikasa’s were quite far away from each other in the large house, causing them to not see each other too often other than at meals. Sure, the pair shared the usual brotherly-sisterly bond since they had first met at the meagre age of five, but the relationship stopped there. There were no late night meetings, there was no ice cream cone sharing, and there was no affection kissing on the cheek before going to bed every night.

  And now that Eren thought about it, he didn’t think that he had seen the inside of Mikasa’s room for three years.

  That thought scared him a little.

  Quickly replying to his sister’s text with a _m’kay_ he re-pocketed the phone for the third time and looked out the window, watching as a steady rain began, hitting the glass pane in front of him with small ‘pits’ and ‘pats’ that were not noticeable on their own, but, with the whole torrent coming at once, it made quite a racket.

  Suddenly, Eren felt a sharp tug on his hair and he swore colorfully. Looking upwards as he quickly yanked his head away from the offending hand, he saw that the culprit was none other than obnoxious, too-full-of-himself Jean. Eren’s sworn enemy since he laid eyes on the horse-face.

  “What the hell.” Eren muttered, glaring at the boy, who simply smiled obnoxiously.

  “Sorry,” he said in a tone that implied the opposite, “I thought that you rich folks had too much money for hair, so you wore wigs.”

  Eren stared at him. “How does having too much money result in being bald?”

  Jean shrugged with a grin. “Hey, how am I supposed to know? I’m not rich.”

  Eren felt his eye twitch, and he began lifting himself off of the seat below him. “Hey, listen here, horse-face,” He began, but was interrupted by Marco, Jean’s best friend.

  Jean was too good for Marco. The poor freckle-faced boy was the kindest hearted soul in school and Eren doubted there was a bad bone in his whole body. Unfortunately, this meant it was only logical for him to be stuck with the kid who had nothing but bad bones in his body.

  “C’mon, Jean.” He said, his voice unusually high for a boy. “Leave Eren alone. And Eren-“ He said, turning to look at Eren, whom of whose face a grin had started to form on.

  “Yeah?” Eren said innocently.

  “Please don’t call Jean a horse-face. It hurts his feelings.”

  Eren threw his hands up in the air and slumped down back into his seat. “Ah, fine Marco.” He said. “But for you. Not for that ho- not for Jean, I mean.”

  Marco, satisfied with the answer, nodded and sat back down with Jean following shortly after.

  Eren continued to glare out the window when he felt a small tap on his shoulder. Turning with a scowl on his face, he saw Armin looking at him with a nervous smile on his face. When he asked Armin what was wrong, Armin simply pointed out the door.

  Eren quickly realized it was his stop.

  “Oh, shit! Thanks Armin!” he yelled back at the blonde boy, quickly dashing out of the bus. “I owe you one!”

  “Well, uh, you kind of owe me thirty six! Thirty seven, n-“ Armin’s voice was quickly cut off when the bus doors slammed shut and the bus began to drive away to drop more students off.

  Walking up too his door, Eren shoved a hand roughly into his pocket before pulling out a pair of keys and shoving the silver tools into the lock. “Hey, I’m hooooo-“

  Eren froze when he suddenly heard a blood-curling scream echo through the house. Dropping his backpack onto the ground, he dashed up the stairs, his heart pounding for reasons he didn’t know why. He had identified the scream as his mom’s, Carla’s, voice the moment it had rung out, and he was headed for her room.

  He was joined on his race to his mom’s room by Mikasa, whose red scarf flapped wildly behind her as she raced through the corridors.

  _It’s going to be okay._ He told himself sternly. _When I turn that corner and open that door, I’m going to see mom, and she’s going to be alive and okay, and she’ll only have screamed because she saw a spider-_

  Eren flung open the door to reveal his mom in a pool of blood, with a figure quickly jumping out of the window. For a moment, Eren and his sister just stood there in shock, unable to believe what had happened in such a short amount of time. He stood there like a gaping fish, his mouth flapping helplessly as he gulped in air. His head suddenly felt light, and he couldn't explain why. All of this felt like a twisted nightmare, a figment of his imagination that resided in the darkest and most profane corners of his mind. It wasn't real. It  _couldn't_ be. That would just be cruel beyond imagination.

  Mikasa moved first.

  She slowly walked over to her adoptive mother, lifting up her head and cradling it in her lap. The woman was just alive, but barely. Eren joined her after a few moments hesitation, tears silently streaming down his cheeks as he knelt beside his mom.

  “Hey.” He said softly, not really sure what to say to comfort his mom. “It’s gonna be okay. Dad is going to come and see you and get a doctor, and then you’ll be all better, y’know?”

  Carla smiled weakly. “No, Eren.” She murmured. “It’s okay. Mikasa,” she said, lifting up her head, “I want, no, I _need_ you to take care of Eren.”

  Mikasa nodded, her face stony and silent. But Eren couldn't bear it. The calm in which the two females in the room handled the situation. The way that they acted so apathetic, so feeling-less - didn't they know that this was hurting, and it was hurting  _him,_ and it was hurting him  _bad?!_

  “No, mom!” he cried. “You’re going to be okay! Stop saying you’re going to die, because you’re not, you’re NOT!”

  Carla’s face twisted a little in reaction to the sharp words. “Please, Eren…” she pleaded quietly.

  “No. NO! NO NO NO! I WON’T ACCEPT IT!” he screamed hysterically, throwing his head into the crook of his mom’s arm, his shoulders shaking as he sobbed.

  Carla patted him gently on the head, an obviously painful gesture. “Please….” She murmured again. “Eren….don’t….”

  The brunette punched the ground angrily with his fist. “I wasn’t there!” he cried. “I could have stopped him! That guy! Whoever he was!”

  “Eren!”

  Eren looked up, blinking away tears as he felt Mikasa’s stern hand on his shoulder. She shook her head slowly, telling him to cease.

  And together, the pair helplessly watched their mom die.

  Eren refused to see the small smile on Carla's face.


	2. The Present

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren gets suspended.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, I apologize for the shortish chapter! It's also kind of boring compared to how action-jammed my other one was...I apologize again for that. ^^'
> 
> I promise that the next chapters will be more interesting than these. 
> 
> Next chapter will (Probably) be of Levi's POV!

  “And may I ask what you’re doing in my office _again,_ young man?”

  I sighed, switching the direction of my gaze from my hands to the man in front of me. _I hate Mr. Shadis._ I told myself for the fourth time in the past minute. The bald man was obviously enjoying my punishment, grinning at me wildly as he stroked his small goatee that protruded from his chin.

  “No, you may not.” I answered grumpily, blowing away a strand of brown hair that had fallen into my eyes.

  This answer didn’t please Mr. Shadis, and he showed so by scowling angrily at me. I knew that I had made the right choice when he did that.

  “Maybe I should rephrase that – tell me exactly what you did. And that’s an order.” He added apprehensively when I opened my mouth to tell him off. Now it was my turn to scowl.

  Giving Mr. Shadis the good ol’ finger under the desk in front of me, I began to, very reluctantly, recount my tale. “Jean was being a bitch, as usual-“ I began, but that earned me more yelling.

  “ _Language_ , Eren Jaeger!” Mr. Shadis exclaimed, slamming his hands on his desk. I muttered an apology that I didn’t mean before continuing-

  “He was making fun of Armin’s hair. So I got mad at him,” The school principle raised an eyebrow, and, cursing inwardly, I added the little piece of information I had neglected to add to my short story, “And I might’ve beat him up.”

  Mr. Shadis sighed and rested his chin on his folded hands in front of him. He purposely dragged out the silence, trying to make me feel uncomfortable, but I didn’t even flinch. It had been a long time since I had been affected by any of his tricks that he tried to use to intimidate me – I had already seen them all, and more than once, too.

  “You know what this means, don’t you?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Three strikes equal a one week suspension. This is my third strike, so I’m suspended. All that sh - I mean, all that _stuff._ ”

  But Mr. Shadis was shaking his head, a gleeful smile on his face. “I’m afraid you’re wrong, Eren.” He said, his voice betraying his gleefulness. “Yes, this is your third strike, but it also your third _suspension._ ”

  I swallowed hard. Oh fuck.

  Mr. Shadis paused, enjoying this more than he should have. “Do you know what it means when you get three suspensions, Eren?”

  I played dumb and shook my head.

  The stupid principle couldn’t keep his feelings in any longer. “You’re going to be on COMMUNITY SERVICE SUSPENSION!” He cried, flinging out his hands and crying out the words as if he had just announced that we were going to Disney World and he had VIP passes for everyone.

  I groaned. Sure, it didn’t sound _too_ bad for a person who might’ve just joined Maria High, but for any Maria High native, those three words were right up there with ‘year-long detentions’. One would have to basically be the virtual slave of some sort of nursing home.

  I suppose this wasn’t exactly too bad for regular commoners who attended Maria High. But at home, it was _I_ who ordered my servants around, and I wasn’t too eager to have those roles reversed. I was happy commandeering my little army of slaves, thank you very much sir.

  Sighing, I leaned back in my chair, gazing at the ceiling. “So where are you going to ship me off too?” I muttered.

  I heard the soft sound of two hands rubbing themselves against each other in pure glee. “Oh, Eren, I’m afraid that I can’t tell you right now,” he said, a wild glint appearing in his eyes as I glanced back down. “You’ll have to wait until tomorrow!”

  I sighed, standing up. “Okay.” I said, my patience wearing thin. “Can I go now?”

  Upset that his fun was over, Mr. Shadis dismissively waved a hand at me. “Oh, sure, sure, fine. You can go now.” He said, turning to his computer screen.

  I walked out of Mr. Shadis’s office, passing the secretary, Rico Brzenska, who glanced up when I passed but quickly averted her gaze and said nothing, although I could tell that she pitied me at least a little from the look in her eyes.

  _Why pity me,_ I silently sneered, _if you’re not going to do anything about it?_ Picking up my backpack that lay outside the office door, I dragged my feet along the corridor and out the nearest exit, despite the fact that it was an emergency exit. Not like I cared. School hours had ended long ago and I didn’t intend to stay longer than needed; I don’t think anyone in their sane mind would.

  Slamming the door behind me, I unzipped my backpack and shoved my hand inside of it, searching its contents blindly until my hand felt the smooth, cold surface of a Pepsi can – to be honest, I had been a Coke fan; that is, until I learned that Jean was also a die-hard Coke fan. I quickly switched as soon as possible.

  Popping the can with a small _fwish,_ I held it up to my mouth as I gulped half of it down in one swig. The fizzy bubbles tickled my throat and made my eyes water, yet simultaneously refreshing me. It was a good feeling.

  Slinging my backpack over my shoulder once again, I pulled my iPhone (with ear buds attached!) out of my pocket, and, after unlocking it, I quickly scrolled down the playlist, looking for a good song to listen too.

  Too my surprise, I found several songs labeled by the artists ‘Vocaloid’ that I had 100% not purchased.

  Feeling myself muttering the name ‘Mikasa’ and rolling my eyes, I shoved the ear buds into my ears and clicked the first song – it was labeled ‘Lost One’s Weeping’ by the iPhone – and let the music play. At first the song didn’t seem too bad; I heard several electric guitars, which made me smile as I am personally an avid fan of electric guitars; but then I heard the singing.

  Not a single fucking word was in English. It was just this pitchy little boy’s – or maybe it was a girl’s, I wouldn’t put it past that shit - voice that practically burst my eardrums with this unintelligible language.

  _Hawatari suu senchi no fushinkan ga-_

  I ripped the ear buds out of my ears, grimacing horribly. Why the hell did Mikasa listen to this shit, and _why_ did she have to purchase it on _my_ iPhone?

  And, for that matter, how did she know my password?

  Shaking my head as I decided against listening to any music at all, I re-pocketed my apple device and continued my way down the street. It was a scary thought, Mikasa knowing my password. Who knows what she would do with that power eventually? I made a mental note to change my password as soon as possible.

  Turning the corner around the building, I saw a large limousine parked right outside the front door. Grinning wildly, I began to wave at the car and raced over to it, my annoyingly long hair flying in my face. Jumping into the car, I looked up to see who the chauffeur was today – and it turned out it was no one other than Eld Jinn, the only butler in the house who didn’t make it obvious that Mikasa was the staff’s favorite.

  Smiling at the blonde ponytailed man, I dug into my bag and pulled out another can of Pepsi – like me, he preferred Pepsi to Coke. He grinned back as he simultaneously started the car and popped open the can.

  “Hey, no drinking while driving!” I teased, leaning back in my seat.

  Eld took a long swig of the drink. “Shit, those laws.” He said quite cheerfully, causing me to break into another grin. However, his next words completely chased that grin off my face. “So, what mess did you end up in this time?”

  I inhaled deeply. “Welllll…..”

  The chauffeur suddenly held up a hand. “Wait. Let me guess…..you beat up Jean, didn’t you?” I could practically hear the smile on his face.

  I scowled angrily. “Well, he made fun of Armin’s hair…”

  Eld sighed. “Listen, kid,” he said patiently, “You can’t get into a fight with Jean about every little thing. It’s going to start growing on you, and you’ll end up being everyone. Not exactly one of the best ways to get a lady, eh?”

  I raised an eyebrow, despite the fact that he couldn’t see me while he was watching the road. “What makes you think I’m into girls?”

  Eld choked on his Pepsi. “Since when were you gay?”

  I frantically waved my hands, realizing my mistake. “Wait, no, I’m not into guys, I’m just saying that- ugh, you know what, forget it.” I sighed and leaned back into beige cushions that served as the car’s seats as we lapsed into an uncomfortable silence.

  Which made me want to do nothing more than scream at someone or something. I worked bad with silence; it was one thing to get the I’m-scaring-you-by-being-silent technique from Mr. Shadis and a whole other thing for everything to suddenly go uncomfortably silent. It caused me to fidget, an annoying habit that I quite hated.

  Thankfully, Eld broke the silence with a sigh. “So I’m guessing you’re suspended?”

  I nodded, and then, remembering he couldn’t see me, I voiced my thoughts – “Yeah.”

  Eld sighed again. “Until when?”

  My eyebrows knitted together. “Well, I’m not actually suspended until Friday-” I started, but Eld interrupted me before I could continue.

  “Why is that so?”

  I nervously twiddled my fingers. “Well, I might….”

  The car’s speed slowly began to decrease.

  “Or might not!”

  The car continued to slow down.

  I sighed. “….be on Community Service Suspension.”

  Eld stopped the car as we ran into a red traffic light. “Well, that sucks for you.” He said after a pause.

  I scowled. “So what? No comfort for me whatsoever?”

  I swore inwardly as Eld replied much-too-cheerfully with a ‘Nope!’ and pressed on the gas pedal at the lights changed from red to green, earning a groan from me as I threw myself back onto the seat. I hadn’t even realized that I had leaned forward to hear Eld’s response.

  A few more minutes of uncomfortable silence passed, before I nervously piped up. “Eld?”

  Another sigh. “Yeah?”

  I muttered something about his profound love of sighing under my breath, before continuing; “Do you, er, does the name ‘Vocaloid’ ring any bells?”

  Eld tilted his head to the side before replying. “Now that I think about it, I do recall your sister talks quite a lot about something called ‘Vocaloid’. Never was quite sure what it was, though. Why do you ask?”

  I rolled my eyes. “ _Someone_ added several songs by Vocaloid onto my iPhone. Without my knowing or permission.”

  Eld clicked his tongue teasingly. “Oh my, we should hang her for her terrible offense to Sir Eren!” he exclaimed. “Seriously, don’t worry about it. It’s just a song. Delete it or whatever.”

  I clenched my fists. “I’m not worrying.” I muttered, sticking out my bottom lip in an upset matter.

  Eld’s laugh resonated around the car, his shoulders heaving up and down as his body was wracked with laughter. “Of course you’re not, Eren.” He said in mock soothing-ness, causing me to flinch. He knew that I hated when anyone didn’t call me ‘Master’, even though it was kind of selfish of me for me to want that.

  Muttering intelligible words under my breath, I looked out the window as we pulled up into the driveway. Not even waiting for the car to stop before I got out, I popped open the door and jumped onto the slowly moving ground beneath my feet, taking my backpack along with me. Mockingly saluting Eld (Who had scoffed at my little ‘stunt’), I walked up to the large white door that served as the entrance to my house.

  Turning the knob without even bothering to unlock it, as I knew that someone would have left it unlocked within two minutes of my arrival, I walked into the house.

  The entrance room was much too extravagant for me. The whole room was practically the duplicate of the room in which the song ‘Masquerade’ was danced at in the 2004 production of ‘The Phantom of the Opera’. I had watched the movie a year or so ago after Armin’s constant nagging that I should see ‘a classic’. Yeah, I guess the movie wasn’t as bad as it could have been, (I especially liked the part when the guy got hanged, though Armin covered his eyes at that) but it was nowhere near my top ten movie. Or my top fifty, for that matter. I’d prefer the classiness of ‘The Walking Dead’, thank you very much.

  Sighing as one of the servants noticed me and quickly shuffled off, I began walking up the stairs, dragging my backpack on the floor behind me as it made small _thumps_. I was glad that my dad was out of town for the week; I wouldn’t have to put up with him yelling at me once he found out I was suspended yet _again._

  Walking down the hall that was positioned at the top of the stairs, I walked a couple steps before turning right and walking into my room. Or rather, room complex. My room consisted of three sections – the sleeping area, the ‘living’ area, which was not unlike a living room in the slightest, and the sunroom. The sunroom also doubled as a balcony on sunny days, for I could remove the glass dome that was placed over the room with a single press of the button that was placed on the inside wall of the third room.

  Walking into the sunroom, I pressed the button and watched the glass shield slowly roll up. Resting my hands up behind my head, I gazed at the sky. _I wish I could end up there,_ I silently said, _where I don’t have to give a shit about anything. It wouldn’t be a bad place._

  And then I felt a hand on my shoulder.

  “HOLY FUCK!” I yelled, spinning around to see that it was none other than Mikasa herself. Her mouth was drawn in the ever-so-slight smirk at my reaction.

  “Mikasa!” I growled, pushing her hand off of my shoulder. “There is something called ‘knocking’, you know?”

  Mikasa shrugged innocently. “I forgot.” She said.

  I scratched my back awkwardly. “Like hell you forgot.” I muttered. “So, why did you come here to my little palace of doom?”

  My sister’s face suddenly grew serious and my heart sank. I was in for one of her lectures. “Eren,” she said slowly, “It has come to my attention that you have been suspended.”

  I did a half-hearted jazz hand. “Surprise.” I sighed.

  Mikasa ignored my small stunt. “Seriously, Eren, you need to pay more attention at school and behave better!” she said angrily, emphasizing her words with a small stomp of her foot. It was kind of cute when she got angry, but I didn’t dare mention it at this certain moment in time. “Before you know it, you’re going to get expelled. _Expelled,_ Eren! Dad won’t be happy!”

  I rolled my eyes and leaned on the balcony’s railing. “See if I give a fuck if Dad is happy or not.”

  Mikasa’s eyebrows narrowed. “First off, _language._ Second off, why are you such a horrible son?!”

  I pokerfaced her, not expecting this question. “What.”

  But Mikasa obviously had fallen into one of her rants. “Dad has shown you nothing but kindness and love. He works so that we can have money to supply ourselves with the necessities in life-“

  “Wait, we don’t have money?” I said in mock surprise.

  Mikasa’s eye twitched. Uh - oh. She was really, truly pissed.

  “He works for money,” she continued as sweetly as she could, “ _Our_ future money, I might add, that _we_ will eventually be spending, not him. He pays the bills. He volunteers at our school. He takes us and our friends out to eat whenever we want. And how do you repay him?”

  I blinked, deciding whether or not to say something. At the moment, ‘not’ sounded like the safer choice.

  “You make his life a living torture!” she cried, pounding her fist on the glass table that had been situated in the center of the sunroom, causing a wide crack to appear in it. I eyed it, but said nothing.

  “You make fun of him! You give him lip when you talk back! You vandalize the streets of Shiganshina, and Dad has to pay who-knows-how-much-money to get you out of trouble! It gives him a bad reputation, you know? And he does it all for _you!”_ Mikasa emphasized this by jabbing a finger into my chest.

  “Hey, wait a second, since when did you know I-“ I shut my mouth a bit too late when I realized what I was saying, and she gave me a triumphant grin.

  “See?” she said, walking off. “You’re nothing but a horrible son.”

  I felt my hands ball up into fists, and, before I knew what was happening, I was punching Mikasa.

  Or rather, trying to, as Mikasa had grabbed onto my wrists before I had even touched her and was laughing spitefully. “Eren,” she said, her voice changing to that of a pitying one, “You never learn, do you?”

  And with that, she walked off, leaving me feeling very confused.

~~~~~~~~

  I didn’t attend dinner downstairs that evening. Instead, I requested (Ugh, fine, _ordered._ ) one of the servants to bring up some dinner once Mikasa and Dad were done eating and laid in my bed, just staring at the ceiling for a good couple hours or so.

  Those last words that Mikasa spoke kept running over through my head – not the ones about being weak, those didn’t bother me. I didn’t think I was weak anyways – it was just that Mikasa was really strong. No, what was bothering me was that she had said I was a horrible son.

  No, I wasn’t bothered about being a horrible son towards Dad. He and I didn’t exactly hold the closest of relations; I still have to idea why, but it seems as if he hated me from the moment I was born. Which wasn’t exactly fair to baby me.

  What bothered me was that I might have been a horrible son to Mom.

  The room in which she had died had remained vacant since the incident, and even though it had been six years, the scar still ran deep. I remember her eyes; how desperate they had been. Even in death, the last thing she had done was ask Mikasa to look after me.

  At first I had been offended by that statement, but it hadn’t been until so many _fucking_ years later that I had realized that it was a symbol of her affection.

  I suppose it was back when Mom died that the rift between my father and I started to grow.

  I let my emotions take over me, and once my grief had turned to anger, I began blaming everything on my father. _If you had taken me in your stupid car,_ I had yelled at him, _Then we would’ve got here before Mom got murdered! We could’ve stopped that whore from firing that bullet that had killed her!_

The bullet.

  The thought ran through my mind and I sat up, glancing to my left, where a small side table was situated. Swinging my legs over the edge of my bed, I opened the bottom drawer. It was filled with undergarments, some of which needed to be washed. (I made a note to remind some of my servants of the horrible stench coming out from my drawer) Throwing all of the clothing items out of the drawer, I peered at the small box that had revealed itself to me.

  It was quite simple – a crudely carved wooden box that could have been sold for less than a dollar. But when I opened it, I saw the offending object that was hidden inside, resting on a soft bed of velvet.

  A shining silver bullet.

  I felt my teeth grind together as I picked up the object, little bits of dried blood that had refused to wipe off when the doctor had first extracted the bullet from my mother’s body. Quickly shoving the bullet back into its case, I slammed the lid shut and threw it back into the drawer, closely followed by several pieces of underwear.

  I realized, with a start, that my heart was pounding and I was sweating like crazy. Rubbing my forehead, I laid back down on the bed, the ceiling slowly starting to grow darker as night began creeping up on the world.

  _I am never going to fall asleep._ I thought with a groan.

  A few minutes later, I felt my mind drifting off into the land of dreams.

~~~~~~~~

  I waved at Eld as he drove off after dropping me off at school this morning. I was reluctant to see him go – I didn’t want to have to face Mr. Shadis alone. _Not that he could come inside the building with me._ I thought sadly, shouldering my backpack as I trudged towards the school. I had come half an hour early due to the fact that Mr. Shadis wanted to see me, and, knowing him, it would probably take a while before I could get out of the office.

  And I _really_ didn’t want to deal with any more angry teachers right now.

  I walked through the depressingly desolate halls of Maria High, with the occasional janitor or teacher passing me by without a second glance. It would have unnerved me less if they actually decided to _look_ at me. The only noise was the sound of our footsteps echoing across the halls, replacing the usual noisy bustling noise of students conversing together as they arrived for the day.

  As I finally arrived at Mr. Shadis’s office, I inhaled deeply, trying to calm down my pulsing heart. _It’s okay. I’m going to survive this. It’s just like any other suspension, except I’ll be spending my week with some creepy old guys._

That didn’t help me at all.

  Robotically opening the doorknob in front of me, I slowly pushed open the door.

  A short man with the most indifferent expression turned to face me. “Oi, brat.” He said. 


	3. Getting an Assignment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi receives a task.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahah, sorry for the doubly long wait! I was busy preparing my cosplay for Boston Anime Con, and after that, I had a shit load of tests and homework to take care of.
> 
> Hopefully, future updates will come sooner.
> 
> Thanks for adding kudos and bookmarking this work! It really leaves me astounded to know that some people actually want to read my work and enjoy it enough to want to read further.
> 
> Urk I added so many references in this chapter~

  “Levi?”

  I sighed as the unfortunately familiar voice pierced my thoughts, breaking the trance that I had fallen into as I had begun to type out yet another story for my publisher. Slamming my laptop screen shut, I pushed my chair back and stood up from my desk. “Yes? What is it?” I inquired, my annoyance making itself clear in my voice.

  Hanji, the owner of the voice, peered around the door that she had been hiding behind, her glasses reflecting the light in such a way that her eyes were not visible. “I was beginning to think you were dead to the world!” She said in her obnoxiously cheery voice that she knew pissed me off to no end.

  I rolled my eyes and drummed my desk with my fingertips, tapping out a pattern-less rhythm. “I was only writing for a couple hours or so, Hanji.” I said impatiently, “And you know that my cover as an author has to be kept up if I don’t want to be shipped off to jail on account of my services to the Wings of Freedom.”

  Now Hanji rolled her eyes, obviously attempting to mock imitate me. “And you were offered the option of having other people write your work for you!” she said, poking me on the nose teasingly.

  I quickly slapped the hand away with a scowl. “Well, it’s too bad for you that I might want to be an honest person and not forge my own work.”

  Apparently, this amused Hanji greatly. “And we’re hearing that from the prime hit man of the Wings of Freedom!”

  My scowl deepened, but I said nothing in response to the comment. “Just tell me why you’re here.” I muttered, switching the subject to something that would (Hopefully) be more in my favor than Hanji’s.

  Hanji grinned and rubbed her hands together. “Thought you’d never ask!” She said, a grin that shouldn’t have been that humanly large appearing on her face.

  Never mind. Forget I said anything about any conversation being in my favor.

  I sat down again and re-crossed my legs. “Just tell me what it is and get out of here.”

  Hanji shook her head. “Nope!” she said, “I have to take you to Erwin!”

  I raised an eyebrow. If Erwin was requesting my presence, something must be important. “I’m going to assume that you’re not going to tell me until we get there,” I said as I walked across the room, “so I’ll just go without any questions.”

  Hanji stuck out her tongue out at me. “Ah, you’re no fun at all these days!” she teased.

  I put on the leather jacket that had been hanging by the door and looked at her questionably. “I’m never any fun.” I told her, my face deadpanned, and walked out the door.

  The Wings of Freedom, or WoF, as some people called it when they were too lazy to spend a couple more seconds to pronounce the whole term, had a ‘base’, or headquarters, or whatever shit you wanted to call it. I had even heard the place being called ‘Heaven in Hell’, but I had snorted at the phrase. Use a cheesy phrase like that and people would be dropping out of the place faster than you could blink.

  The base was, unfortunately, not some high-tech super-secret underground and underwater base that no one would be able to find. No, it was simply an apartment complex about sixteen stories tall. Your room depended on your rank in the WoF; the more impact you had on the group, the closer to the top you would be. Which I personally found very annoying, as the newbies who were still wet around the ears didn’t have to scale thousands of steps everyday just to get to their office, due to the annoying fact that the elevator refused to fix itself, even after hiring over a hundred different companies to try and fix the damn thing.

  My office was fairly near the top – on the fourteenth floor – and I was proud to say that it was six floors above Uale’s office. After I had stolen the necklace from the Jaeger household, the reports of the deaths had come in quickly, and my fame in the Wings of Freedom had rocketed, attracting attention from even Erwin, or, if one were to call him by his code name, then by ‘Commander’. After he had assigned me as the head hit man of the Wings of Freedom, he had jokingly called me ‘Corporal’.

  The name had stuck, and, thanks to Erwin, that was my new code name. Although it was much preferred to my old code name, ‘Mouse’, it still wasn’t exactly on my ‘top ten code names’ list. It sounded much too flamboyant for someone like me, although Hanji said otherwise.

  “You could have been called ‘Flamingo’ or ‘Rainbow-man’!” she had insisted when I had complained about my title one time too many. “‘Corporal’ fits you, anyways.”

  If I had been called ‘Rainbow-man’, I would have immediately put myself on my own hit list.

  Although I was the best hit man of WoF, I wasn’t called on too often to perform my job in the recent. There weren’t many people who wanted someone else dead, apparently – although, fortunately, whenever I did get a job, I would get paid a hefty amount for it.

  But getting a job didn’t mean that I was going to be called to Erwin’s office, all the way up on floor sixteen. He never called me up there; true, every once in a while he would come down to my office to play a game of chess or two, we weren’t enemies or anything, but no one was called up to his office unless it was important. The last time I had come into his office was when I had turned 19, six years ago. That was the day I had been promoted to the rank of the head hit man, being the youngest WoF member to ever been promoted to such a rank.

  I had been called a prodigy, but the title was empty except where Uale was involved. His expression when he found out that I was a higher rank than him had been priceless. His mouth had dropped open to such an extent that I didn’t know was humanly possible until he had done so. I still lamented that I had not had a camera at hand at the moment – I would have taken that picture and framed it right above my desk.

  Immersed in my thoughts, I didn’t realize that I had been approaching Erwin’s office until I was right outside the door, with Hanji looking expectantly at me to open the doorknob as she stood, not far off. “Well?” she prompted. “You don’t want to keep him waiting!”

  Scowling at Hanji, I opened the door to reveal Erwin, who, apparently, had been staring at the door at that moment.

  I felt a small shudder travel down my back, but said nothing, giving Erwin the privilege of speaking first.

  “Corporal,” he started slowly, using my code name, “I am going to take a wild guess and say that you’re wondering why you’re here.”

  I rolled my eyes and sat myself down at the chair in front of his desk. “Genius, your wild guesses.” I muttered.

  This caused a small chuckle to emit from the Commander. I personally had no idea how he found my comment funny, but I wasn’t about to be one to judge Erwin’s strange logic.

  Erwin took a deep breath. “You’re going to have to take a student from Maria High into your custody while they’re on their ‘Community Service Suspension’.”

  I sat straight up. “Holy fuck, no.”

  Erwin sighed and held out a hand. “Now, Levi,” he started slowly.

  I narrowed my eyes. “I’m not a babysitter who’s going to wipe the shit off of his butt when he takes a dump in his diaper!” I said, slamming a hand onto Erwin’s desk.

  Erwin looked back calmly. “Are you forgetting your position in the Wings of Freedom?” He asked softly, a thick yellow eyebrow rising up questionably.

  I hissed in frustration through my teeth. “Fuck you.” I muttered, leaning back into the cushioned seat and, with a hint of contempt, rested my feet onto Erwin’s desk. I knew full well how much it pissed him off.

  True to my prediction, Erwin took in a forced inhalation of breath, obviously trying to calm his nerves, those of which had been in his control only moments before. I smirked as he began talking. “Just….listen to me for one bloody minute, alright?” he said.

  “Oh, so now you’re talking like Ron Weasly from _Harry Potter,_ now, are you?”

  Erwin rolled his hands into fists that sat dangerously on the surface of the desk, but I continued despite the obvious warnings of him losing his temper.

  “What next, you’ll copy the British accent as well? Just don’t summon a demon butler who will want to eat your soul someday.” I threw my head back with a bitter laugh. “Though, to be honest, an eye patch wouldn’t look too bad on you.”

  Hanji rolled her eyes and playfully slapped my cheek. “Oh, shut up.” She said with a smile, before turning to Erwin and poking his shoulder. “You know that he’s doing that too get your temper up so you won’t force him to do the job.” She teased.

  I stuck my tongue out at the slightly deranged woman, who stuck it out right back at me.

  My strikingly blonde boss took in a deep breath. “She’s right, Levi.” He said calmly, regaining his composure, “But your behavior only proves my point at what I’m trying to achieve here.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Oh? And what might that be?”

  Erwin took out a small three-page packet of papers that had been hidden from view in an even larger stack of papers. My mouth opened to make a comment on how quickly he had managed to sort through the mess that rested on his desk, but Erwin’s tongue proved to be faster than my own.

  “You are in need of disciplining as well, Levi Heichou.” He said, using my full name to add gravity to the situation. “Over the past couple of months, you’ve seem to lost your…respect for people of higher status than you.”

  I shrugged. “No, it’s just that I got bored and decided that annoying you was the next best thing after killing people.”

  Erwin flailed a hand out at me. “See?! This is _exactly_ what I’m talking about! You need to learn to watch your tongue, boy.”

  “Tch.” I muttered. “First off, I’m a legal adult – to be precise, I’m twenty six. And you are….?” I raised an eyebrow and gestured at Erwin to prompt him along.

  “That’s not important.”

  “Excuses for being seventy three.”

  “I’m not seventy three.” Erwin stated firmly, not getting nearly as upset as I had hoped he would have. “My point is, Levi-“

  “Eh, eh, eh!” I said, wagging a finger at him. “I didn’t give my second or third point yet!”

  If looks could kill, I would have been halfway on the road to hell by now.

  “My point is, Levi,” He repeated, his voice strained, “is that you might be in need of discipline as much as that boy.”

  “But won’t it be dangerous?” I insisted, my mood turning to one much more serious. “I’m a hit man, after all. Should he discover who I am, then we’re ultimately screwed. I’m pretty sure that he will have been familiar with at least one of the victims, or, at least, know someone who is familiar with them. If that’s so, I doubt he’ll hesitate to call the police.”

  “That’s a risk we’re willing to take.”

  “Over a _boy?!_ ” I shook my head. “I still don’t understand why we have to take him under our wings for this, what did you call it, ‘Community Service Suspension’?”

  Erwin sat back down in his seat, ruffling his hand through his strikingly blonde hair. “It’s a way to throw suspicion off of you.” He said after a few moments. “For the past two years or so, people have started to get onto your trail. Of course, we’re thrown them off that trail easily, but it gets increasingly harder each time. If this continues at the rate it’s going….” His voice trailed off.

  I snorted. “Oh, come on Erwin. Stop being melodramatic and tell me whatever you’re going to tell me.”

  Erwin took a deep breath. “Within the next three months, you’ll be arrested and executed.”

  I blinked, surprised by this piece of news, but not too particularly troubled. “And you were intending to tell me this when…?”

  Now it was the Commander’s turn to smirk. “I just did. And if we were too have you ‘volunteer’ at a school, it would help clear your name a bit. It would give you a sort of ‘alibi’, if you will.”

  Sighing, I brushed some annoying pieces of hair that had strayed in front of my eyes. “Alright, alright. When do I start babying this brat?”

  Erwin obviously was enjoying the next part of this conversation. “Tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow?!” I sputtered.

  “That’s what I said, isn’t it?” My boss smirked, and I resisted a great urge to slap that grin off of his face. Multiple times.

  “Couldn’t you have warned me before, or have given me a bit of a heads up?” I said, wringing my hands. This day was not going to way I had hoped it would.

  Erwin shrugged the perfect picture of innocence. “I couldn’t have even if I had wanted too.” He said. “The boy only committed his ‘crime’ this afternoon. I only heard of this incident an hour ago myself.”

  I sighed and placed a hand to my brow, massaging it gently. “And I’m going to assume that I was the first thought that came to your mind?”

  Erwin flashed me a grin, his white teeth glinting almost evilly in the dim light that streamed through the window. “That’s right!”

  I groaned through my teeth. “I hate you.”

  Hanji, who had been surprisingly quite for a while, hugged me around the shoulders. “Nothing but love from this end, Levi.”

  Standing up, I began pushing in my chair. “Alright.” I said with a sigh. “Can you give me some specific instructions on how to deal with this brat? For example, how long I have to wait before taking out the guns.”

  Hanji glared at me sternly. “There will be no trigger pulling.”

  I stuck out my tongue at her. “You’re no fun.” I said, quoting a certain slightly deranged woman.

  The woman in question patted me on the back. “You were never any fun to begin with, so we’re even.” She chirped, her glasses bouncing on her nose as she shook her head playfully.

  Erwin stood up. “But in all seriousness, Levi has a point.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “So we do get to shoot the boy?”

  Erwin sighed. “No.”

  I felt a frown form on my face, a bit like that of a disappointed spoiled child. “Aaaw….”

  “The point was that you actually are stupid enough to need instructions on how to babysit a child at the age of twenty seven.”

  “Six.” I quickly corrected.

  “Whatever.” Erwin said with a wave of his hand. “It’s the same difference. Here –“ He said, holding up a folder that he seemed to have held in his hand at the ready. “This is a copy of the section on ‘Community Service Suspension’ from the Maria High handbook. You should be able to grasp a firm concept of what is expected of the child in your custody. And what is expected of you, for that matter.”

  Scowling, I grabbed the fairly thin folder from his hands. Opening the file to quickly scan over the piece, I noted that it was about seven pages long. A delicate eyebrow rose up as I glanced at Erwin. Obviously, this ‘Community Service Suspension’ seemed to be much longer and more complicated than I had anticipated.

  “You should have practically memorized all of that material by tomorrow morning when you arrive at Maria High School.” Erwin said when I closed the folder.

  This comment had obviously been meant as a dismissive one, but I stayed, knowing full well that Erwin was holding one more final piece of information from me just to piss me off.

  Once the Commander realized that I wasn’t going to be fooled by his comment, he scowled and opened a drawer in his desk. After some muttering and sorting through the files that resided inside, he took out an even thinner folder than the one I had received moments before.

  “Here.” He said, holding this second folder out to me. “This is our file on the child that you will be monitoring – Eren Jaeger.”

  I took the folder from him doubtfully, before opening it. It contained only one piece of paper – hardly something worthy of a whole folder for itself. “ _This_ is all we have on him?!” I exclaimed, my voice reflecting my disbelief.

  Erwin nodded sourly. “Yes. For whatever reason, we have had very little information on Eren over the years.”

  “Which is quite unfortunate!” Hanji piped up, obviously having hated having to been kept quiet.

  I sighed and closed the second file, tucking it, along with the first file, under my arm. “I’m going to assume that you also want me to get more information on this brat?”

  Erwin sighed. “Yes. Despite wanting to save your skin, it’s dangerous to know as little as we do about this student. Right after Hanji, you have the sharpest eyes for detail in all of the Wings of Freedom. And Hanji can’t go because she’s busy with yet _another_ project on altering the genetic tissue of several of our members whose tissue samples have been found at some of their crime scenes.”

  “It’s quite annoying,” Hanji added, “what with having to come up with a new genetic pattern practically every week. Do you know how long it takes to create just one string of DNA? Well, let me tell you, it’s not exactly the easiest process.”

  A dismissive hand was waved in her general direction. “Yes, yes, we’re well aware that your job isn’t the easiest.” Erwin muttered. “But you’re paid sufficient money for your job, now, aren’t you?”

  Hanji nodded sullenly. “Damn right I am.”

  The Commander smiled wryly at that, but said nothing as he turned back to me. “You are dismissed.” He said, stating the obvious instead of simply implying it as he had done before.

  I dipped my head at Erwin, so low that it was almost mocking, and walked out of the door. Hanji’s rants still managed to squeeze through the entrance, even after I had closed it, although it was greatly muffled.

  “Sir?”

  Hearing a familiar voice, I turned around to see Petra, my assistant and apprentice. Her golden-orange hair was messily tied up in a small bun, a different approach to her hairstyle than her usual laid-back ponytail. Perched on her nose were a small set of spectacles, obviously an attempt to imitate Hanji, who had been her idol as a young member of the Wings of Freedom.

  That is, right after me.

  I couldn’t quite place why Petra seemed to harbor such respective feelings towards me, when most of the time I just treated her fairly roughly. The only people I had ever opened up too in the least were Erwin, Hanji, and sometimes Mike. If I was in a good mood, as the man was almost as annoying as Hanji and five times stranger. And even then, I had only showed them the good parts of me – the parts that didn’t hurt so much to talk about.

  I hadn’t even shown the slightest bit of these feelings to Petra, and yet she stuck to me like glue. Most people who had wanted to be apprenticed to me had requested to be transferred within the first week or so, but Petra had lasted a whole seven months. I was even aware of some people placing bets on how much longer she would last before she had enough of me.

  It wasn’t as if I resented Petra – no, she was a pleasant enough woman to be around and she didn’t constantly nag me with useless, annoying questions. She didn’t get pissed at me when I mistreated her, and when I got into one of my mood swings, she didn’t start crying.

  What I resented to say to anyone was that I thought Petra, in a way, scared me.

  Which didn’t make any sense at all. Well, to me, at least. I don’t think it was her presence that scared me. She was too sweet and kind for that. I still wondered why she had wanted to become a hit woman in the Wings of Freedom, when it was the messiest and darkest job – I thought that she would have been much better at dealing with new recruits, people who were still wet behind the ears. It was what her personality did to me that scared me.

  It was if she understood why I drunk, why I smoked, why I lived in a secluded area, and why I was so upset all the time. It was as if she knew why I hated everyone.

  Of course, there was no room for that at all. I could never bear that weight, knowing that someone else knew me better than I knew myself.

  “Sir? Are you alright?”

  My train of thoughts was interrupted as Petra repeated her question, now with an added plus of more words in it. I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts.

  "No, it’s nothing.” I muttered, ruffling a hand through my hair as I took out the files from under my arm. Peering at them for a moment, I handed them to Petra. “Here. We’ll have a new addition to the household tomorrow.”

  Petra’s eyes narrowed, and I wondered for a moment if she actually knew the emotion of jealousy as she took the folders from my hand. “Another apprentice, sir?” she muttered.

  I chuckled, a rare smile flirting across my face. “No, Petra. Read both of those files and you’ll understand. And how many times have I told you to not call me sir? It’s annoying and too formal for a hit man. It’s even worse than ‘Captain’, and I barely put up with that one.”

  Petra’s face began to flush, embarrassment apparent on her youthful features. “Oh, I’m sorry, si- er, Captain.”

  I sighed. “Don’t be. I should have explained that to you the moment you became my apprentice; after all, old habits die hard.” Not looking to see if my apprentice would follow, I began taking long strides down the hallway, trying to make up for the lost distance from my height with larger steps.

  Noises of papers being ruffled and picked up alerted me of Petra’s hasty departure after me. I smirked slightly, picturing her glasses hanging off of her nose at an awkward angle as they desperately clung on for dear life. Or whatever glasses had.

  After several moments, Petra managed to catch up to me right before I transcended down the stairs. “Sorry, Captain.” She said, her face becoming even more flustered than it had only moments before.

  I was tempted to tell her once again that she had no need to apologize, but I decided against it. It wasn't worth the breath at the moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I suppose it is a bit stalkerish to keep files on every single person in the city, but for the purpose of this, we're going to pretend like it's possible and normal. Le deal?


	4. The Two Get Acquainted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi and Eren meet, and Eren discovers that Levi's subordinate isn't too bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Urk don't kill me plz~
> 
> I know this is really late, and I apologize for that. You can blame me teachers for giving me AT LEAST TWO TESTS EVERY SINGLE DAY LAST WEEK.
> 
> //glares at teachers//
> 
> Also, if you guys have noticed the Eren Yaeger/Petra Ral tag that I recently added, you shippers will enjoy this chapter~
> 
> Don't worry, Ereri will still be the main focus of this story. But that will happen later. //rolls off//

  I sat in the backseat of Levi’s car, (A typical car of a commoner would use called a ‘Toyota’, I believed,) my body language sending off the obvious signal that I resented being there. I didn’t care if Levi would end up not liking me – I didn’t like him anyways, so the feeling would be neutral. He was much too short for me.

  Well, I suppose that wasn’t the only reason. After he had called me ‘brat’, I had instantly decided that this man was going to be my second least favorite person in the world, the first being Jean Kirstein.

  His assistant wasn’t so bad, though. A young orange-haired woman had greeted us when Levi had taken me to his car, scaring the shit out of me when she stepped out of the door without warning. Levi had obviously enjoyed the fact that I had screamed like a little girl, but Petra was extremely apologetic, bowing over and over again and muttering ‘I’m sorry’s until I finally told her that it had been nothing.

  After being seated into the car, I had started to comment on how dirty and old the car had been, (Though, in fact, it was so clean that it was kind of scary,) but Levi gave me such a look that for the first time in my life, I actually felt intimidated by someone other than Mikasa.

  So I decided that my safest option was to shut the fuck up for the rest of the car ride if I wanted to live to see the next day.

  However, after Levi turned on the radio and a horribly familiar song began to filter through, I accidently went back on that promise.

  “You listen to Vocaloid?” I gushed, the words coming out of my mouth before I could stop them.

  Levi’s head snapped back, his eyes mere slits. “And?” he asked, his voice dangerously low.

  I shuffled uncomfortably under his gaze. “Uh, shouldn’t you be keeping your eyes on the road?”

  Unfortunately, a certain pair of grey eyes did not return to the street in front of us. But thankfully, we had reached a red light so we were not in immediate danger of dying. Well, scratch that – Petra and Levi were not in immediate danger of dying. With Levi continuing to look at me the way he was right now, I doubted that I was going to survive much longer.

  “No, I don’t give a fuck about the shitty road. Tell me what you meant by asking me why I liked Vocaloid.” Levi’s voice was monotone; so much so that I doubted if that same voice was really coming from the dagger-shooting face in front of me.

  I shrugged nervously, not really knowing what to say. “It’s just that, uh, I’m not really a fan of Vocaloid.” I muttered, hoping that saying those words hadn’t put me on his death wish list.

  Levi let out a short bark of laughter with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “That sucks for you, brat.” He said. “Because for the next week, you’re going to be hearing a shit ton of Vocaloid.”

  Petra spoke up for the first time since she had apologized and introduced herself. “Uh, Co-“

  Levi glared at Petra, and she shrunk back into her seat before rephrasing the statement. I assumed that what she had been about to say was a pet name of some sort, and Levi didn’t want me hearing the name as I probably would be calling that for the rest of the time that I would be acquainted with him.

  He was probably right. Damn him for being so precautious.

  “Eheh, Levi. Why don’t you lay off the Vocaloid for this week, since we have a guest…?”

  Levi waved a hand dismissively before turning back to the road as the light switched back to green. “Petra, what you don’t understand is that,” he said as he pressed on the gas pedal, “when someone is punished, they have to endure a lot of things that they don’t like. And it seems here that our young friend Eren is being punished right now, isn’t he? If he’s going to be my slave for a week, he can be a slave who has to listen to music that he doesn’t like.”

  Petra visibly winced. “Levi, that’s harsh. Don’t call him your slave.”

  Levi raised a delicate eyebrow. “What do you want me to call him? My friend? Yeah, not on your life.”

  I stuck out my tongue at the back of Levi’s head.

  “I can see you stick your tongue out at me with the mirror, dumbass.”

  My tongue made its way back into my mouth quite hastily as Petra shot me a sympathetic look, mouthing the words ‘I tried’ as she did so.

  I sighed, shaking my head in an ‘it’s okay’ gesture as the car pulled into a driveway and slowed to a stop. Levi opened his door carefully, before sticking a boot out and stepping onto the asphalt driveway. Petra followed suit, leaving me inside the car as I fumbled with the controls to open the door.

  Suddenly, the door slid open on its own accord, causing me to fall head-first onto the driveway under me as I had been leaning on the door in an attempt to make it open.

  Rubbing my head and cursing colorfully, I looked up to see Levi with a pair of keys in his hand and a smirk on his face. “Next time, brat, learn how to open a door.” He said, adding injury to, well, injury as he dropped the keys on my face and walked into his house.

  Petra, being the complete opposite of the asshole that had ditched me, rushed over to me as a gasp escaped from her lips. Helping me up, she placed a hand to my forehead, before removing it and inspecting the blood that appeared.

  “Does it hurt?” she asked, but I shook my head.

  “Not much. It stings like hell, though.” I muttered, standing up with Petra’s help. “Do you have, like, bandages or something?”

  Petra nodded. “Yeah, we do. I’ll go get some cotton swabs and alcohol so that the wound doesn’t get infected, either. C’mon, let’s get you inside first.”

  I groaned at the mention of the alcohol, but otherwise, I was grateful to Petra. Although it was a bit embarrassing that she treated me like a wounded war hero, I leaned on her a bit for support as she took me inside. After she sat me down at a seat in the kitchen, she walked out of the room, passing Levi as he made his way in. I groaned. I didn’t really want to see this asshole right now.

  He stood in front of me, hands on hips, and I noted with much amusement that even with me sitting down in a chair, I was taller than him. He jabbed my chest angrily. “Two rules.” He said. “One. You do whatever I say, and without questions. I hate questions. Two. You _never_ go to my room. Ever. Never-fucking-ever. Get it?”

  My eyebrows furrowed. “Why can’t I go to your room?”

  I felt a hand slap across my face, hitting me with so much force that I went sprawling across the room. I was left gasping and glaring on the floor as Levi looked at me with contempt. “Remember rule number one.” He said, giving my body a nudge before walking out of the room. “’Cause you’ve already broken it.”

  Dazed by the sudden show of violence, I couldn’t find the strength to get off of the floor. Well, I’m not sure if it was simply because of my lack of strength or the shock of being slapped – no one had ever slapped me except for Mikasa, and that had only been once in my life. And afterwards, she had apologized so much that it had become embarrassing.

  Well, that was a lie. Jean had slapped me many of times, but I had returned the favor, so I didn’t really count that.

  I had never been slapped out of cold blood; most people were too scared of what my family might do to them if they found out. In their mind, they probably thought that my dad would use his connections in the government to set the FBI on them. Of course, that was a lie, too – my dad honestly wouldn’t give a shit if I was beaten up an inch from my life.

  But I let people at my school live under the illusion that if they hurt me, they would get shipped off to jail. It was almost amusing to watch them clench their fists at me as I pissed them off, full well knowing that they couldn’t hurt me.

  Petra walked in a minute or so after Levi left, the medical equipment that she had promised clutched in her hands. Seeing me on the floor, she sighed and knelt down beside me. “I’m sorry,” she murmured, dabbing at my forehead with an alcohol-doused cotton swab, “but once your get to know Levi, you’ll find out he isn’t that bad!”

  I snorted. “I already know him too well, in my opinion.”

  The girl smiled sympathetically. “Don’t be so hasty to judge him. Levi would probably kill me if he found out I told you this, but,” she hesitated, but continued, “his childhood wasn’t exactly the best. He was bullied a lot, and his parents weren’t exactly there to support him. He had to be shipped off to child services, eventually.”

  I rolled my shoulders experimentally as I sat up, trying to loosen the kinks I had received after the rough treatment. “So?” I said, “My mother was murdered in front of my eyes, and you don’t see me being a melodramatic piece of shit everywhere I go. My past didn’t shape me, so Levi’s past shouldn’t shape him.”

  For a moment, my mind didn’t register what I said. Those words had come from my mouth so casually, as if it didn’t even matter. They did, matter obviously, but I bit my tongue, trying to block out any thoughts of

  Petra cringed a little at the mention of the murder, but I didn’t mind the reaction too much. Most people had similar reactions when I told them about my mom’s demise. It was normal, I guess.

  But the first part of my statement had been a lie. Or, rather, a half-lie. No one ever _saw_ me being depressed, but when I was alone, like yesterday, sometimes all the feelings were a bit too much and I would break down.

  Trying to change the subject, I piped up with an innocent question – “Levi’s a writer, right? What book is he currently writing, then?”

  Petra smiled understandingly. “He’s currently in the process of writing a book set in the modern day called _‘Silver Bullet’_. He’s finished with the outline and is about two-thirds or so done with the first draft. What I’ve read so far is quite good – I think that if you asked him, he would let you read it as well.”

  My brow furrowed at the title. Somehow, it seemed unnervingly familiar, but the annoying feeling of having something at the tip of my tongue was all that I got from the subject. Scowling slightly, I shrugged.

  “I’m pretty sure that he would think that I might try to steal his work and claim it as my own.” I mumbled, earning a laugh from Petra. That quickly chased away my scowl, even if I wasn’t exactly smiling yet.

  Her laugh was nice. It was light and tinkly, similar to that of a bell. After a few moments, however, her giggles subsided and she smiled at me.

  “You’re probably right.” She admitted.

  I raised an eyebrow. “Probably?”

  Petra flushed, and that made me smile against my will. “Okay, you’re completely and utterly right.” She confirmed. “Happy now?”

  Now it was my turn to laugh. “Very.” I assured her, slowly standing up. My cheek felt red and raw where Levi had slapped me, and it was painful to the touch. Wincing a bit, I felt Petra’s supportive hands once again around my shoulders as she led me back to my seat.

  “Once you feel better, you can start working on these.” She said, handing me a sheet of paper. Looking at it, I realized that it was a list of chores. “Levi wants his house to be completely clean so that he can, and I quote, ‘be free from all the unnecessary distractions of the shit that is tracked into my house’.”

  I cast a reluctant eye over the sheet of paper. It was made up of a list of sixty seven tasks, most of which seemed to, as Petra had pointed out, to do with cleaning.

  “Well, that must be a lot of shit.” I noted, and Petra once again giggled her sweet laugh. I gave myself a mental high-five.

  “I guess it is.” She agreed, and began to walk out of the room. “The brooms are in the closet, and all the chemicals and other weird cleaning stuff that Levi has is in the cabinet under the sink!” she called over her shoulder.

  I looked at her indignantly. “Wait, you’re going to leave me here alone to clean the whole house?!” I protested.

  She paused at the door frame and smiled. “I wish.” She admitted, “But I have the other half of the cleaning list.” She lifted up her hand, of which contained the said list, and walked out of the room, her black heels clicking on the waxed floor beneath her feet.

  I listened to the shoes until they were out of the range of my feeble ears. Smirking slightly, I hopped off of the edge of the chair and walked over to the closet. This week wasn’t going to be quite as bad as I had thought.

  In fact, I might even enjoy it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

  One of the unfortunate things about taking part in a ‘Community Service Suspension’ was that the person in trouble actually had to _sleep over_ at their house, so that they could start ‘bright up and early to work’.

  I had always found this a weird quirk for the punishment, especially after I heard a rumor floating around about a year or two ago, in which a girl who had slept over at a small corner store almost got raped by the fifty year old owner.

  You would think that by then, he would have realized that no sane woman would take a liking to him in his current state. Especially not a girl who he attempted to rape.

  Mr. Shadis had quickly smothered out the rumor before it got out to the general public, but the girl who had supposedly been the victim of the rape attempt didn’t show up at school for the next two weeks. After three weeks, we found out she had moved all the way to New York.

  Talk about being desperate to ditch school.

  But by the way that Levi had treated me, however, I doubted that he was going to try and rape me. I didn’t even think he was gay – he seemed to be a pretty stick-to-the-book type of person. And Petra was too kind a soul to even think about touching me sexually.

  Unfortunately, I was informed by Levi that there were no guest bedrooms and I would be forced to sleep in living room with Petra. Fortunately, there _were_ two mattresses, so I wouldn’t have to sleep in the same bed as her, which was a relief.

  It still was a bit uncomfortable, sleeping in the same room as a girl, however.

  In my whole life, I’d only ever slept in the same room with another person once; that is, if you disregard the times when I was a baby and was still suckling my mom’s tits while I slept. That one time had been when I had slept over at Marco’s house for a sleep over; and, sure enough, Jean was there.

  I had sworn to never go to a sleep over that experience.

  However, Petra was no Jean, so hopefully things wouldn’t turn out too bad.

  I had planned ahead for once and packed some sleeping attire in my school backpack, with a little help from Eld when I couldn’t fit in even one of the blankets, let alone a pillow. Eld had rolled his eyes at my ‘over packing’, but I had disagreed – back then, I still didn’t know who I would be assigned too for my punishment, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to sleep in a bed where old dying people had taken their last breaths if I was assigned to a nursing home.

  In that aspect, I guess that I was almost glad that I had been assigned to Levi – he probably would have thrown out the whole bed if someone were to die on it, dubbing it as ‘filthy’.

  The mattress that he had given me wasn’t exactly uncomfortable, but it wasn’t as good as the ones, either. But then again, the ones at home were all water mattresses, and to expect someone like Levi to own something as expensive as that was probably putting in him too high of a regard.

  But the bathroom wasn’t too bad. I took a quick shower after finishing all my tasks for the day, making sure to wash my hair as Levi had insisted that it was much too dirty and threatened to give me Petra’s share of the work instead if I didn’t thoroughly clean it.

  After stepping out of the bathroom with a towel over my head, I laid the bed and gazed upwards at the ceiling lazily. Judging by the breathing not too far from me, Petra appeared to be in the room already. Turning my head to the side, I tried searching for her through the dark, but I could barely make out her faint outline.

  Sighing, I turned my face back towards the ceiling. Lazily, I lifted my hand, reaching for the dark dome in front of me, clenching it into a fist, as if to capture some of the darkness inside of my hand, before letting my hand fall to my side.

  I tried to sleep. I really did. But no matter what I tried, my mind just couldn’t seem to accept that all I wanted to do was shut down and sleep.

  So after much shuffling, cover flipping, pillow fluffing, and counting of sheep, I heard a tired voice a few feet away from me. “Can’t sleep either?”

  I sat up with a start. “I didn’t know you were awake.” I stated bluntly.

  Petra yawned and from the sounds coming from her area, I assumed that she had sat up as well. “Well I am.” She said sleepily. “Or rather, I was asleep for a while until the noises you made caused me to wake up. Don’t blame yourself,” she added gently as I opened my mouth to apologize, “I’m just an unnaturally light sleeper. Sometimes even Levi wakes me up, all the way from upstairs, when he’s up late and working on his book.”

  She giggled her pretty laugh, and I felt a soft smile form on my face.

  For a while, we conversed to each other in soft whispers, simply enjoying each other’s presence, until I asked her a question.

  “Hey, Petra, how did you become acquainted with Levi? And, for that matter, why did you stick around with him? You seem way too nice to be hanging out with a guy like him.”

  I could practically hear Petra smiling. “Well, half the time I wonder why I do too.” She admitted.

  We laughed together softly again, and Petra continued. “Levi and I went to the same high school together,” she said, the silhouette of her head turning from me to the ceiling. “and at first I didn’t even know he existed, as we weren’t in the same grade and I didn’t really pay attention to any of the kids that weren’t in my grade.

  “One day, however, there was this one boy – his name was Nile, I think? – in his junior year, so he was the same grade as Levi at the time, and he asked me…” Petra paused, and after a few seconds of an embarrassed silence, she whispered, “He asked me to let him fuck me.”

  I let out a low, soft whistle at that. “Well, I don’t blame him for that.” I teased, and Petra playfully shoved me.

  “Shut up.” She muttered. “Anyway, I refused him, and he got really angry. At first, he just stormed off and ignored me for a couple weeks, until eventually I forgot all about him, until one day, while I was in the girls’ bathroom.” She paused. “The _girls’ bathroom,_ for God’s sake. Did he not have any decency?”

  “But I was in the bathroom, answering nature’s call, when all of a sudden he just barges into my stall and grabs me by the shoulders and forces me onto the floor. Before I know it, he’s starting to unbutton my shirt and…” Petra shuddered at the memory, and I gave a sympathetic click of my tongue.

  “There were no other girls in the bathroom at the time, so I couldn’t ask for help.” She continued, “At least, not until after he had been finished with me. Then  _Levi,_ of all people, rips Nile off of me and starts beating him up. It got to the point where Nile was eventually knocked unconscious, and after that, I made the foolish mistake of hugging Levi.” Petra chuckled at this.

  “Levi’s face turned the _deepest shade of red_. At first I thought it was because he was embarrassed that I hugged him – for a couple days afterwards, I even had a theory that he liked me, but those hopes were dashed – but that he muttered something about how I was naked.” Petra and I suddenly exploded with laughter at the exact same moment, which of course, just made us laugh harder.

  Clutching at my stomach, which hurt from all the uncontrollable laughter, I didn’t realize that Levi had entered the room until the lights were turned on.

  “Mind explaining what the hell you two gossipers are doing up at this hour?”

  Managing to subdue the giggles that still escaped from my mouth, I looked at Levi. His hair was a mess, signifying that he had just woken up, but strangely enough, he was in the same clothing that he had worn while I met him. I was tempted to ask why he was wearing the obviously uncomfortable-for-sleeping outfit, but I decided against it when he looked at me.

  For the first time, I understood the expression ‘if looks could kill’. Because if they could, Levi would be dropping an atomic bomb on me right now. At least, if that were the case, he would die right alongside me, so it wouldn't be too bad.

  I paused. That sounded wrong. I should have said (Ugh, thought, whatever.) I would have taken him down as I died, so I could have had my ‘revenge’, so to speak.

  ….I was over thinking this, wasn't I.

  Petra opened her mouth to say something, but Levi just waved her away. “Go to sleep,” He muttered, “I feel like a piece of shit right now, thanks to you two.” Turning off the lights, he added, “Expect a little extra work tomorrow, Eren.”

  “Hey!” I protested, “How come Petra doesn't get more work?”

  “Because dealing with you is punishment enough for her.” He retorted lazily, speaking around a yawn.

  Feeling my cheeks flush as Petra chortled, I laid back down on the bed as Levi’s footsteps faded back upstairs. For a moment, I was angry at Levi, but then I realized something –

  He had made Petra laugh for me one more time before I went to sleep.

  And not the soft, tinkly laugh from before - this one was a full fledged, deep-from-the-abyss type of laugh that made me wonder what type of body part Petra had used to make that sound.

  Smiling as I rolled over to face away from Petra, I discovered that I liked this laugh, Petra's  _real_ laugh, as I decided to call it, much better.

  And Levi wasn't too bad, apparently.

  For he had unintentionally rewarded me.


End file.
